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Images in the Health Sciences: Other Sources

U.S. Government Licensed Images

Some U.S. government media collections are licenses specifically as government works. See https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright

Sources for U.S. Government Licensed Images

Decorative Images

Decorative images used to liven up a presentation or other project may not need to be specifically health sciences related. The sources that follow are good options for decorative images. Copyright applies here too. So be sure to know whether the images are copyright protected, Creative Commons licenses, or in the public domain. Additionally, see the Privacy & Publicity Rights section of this guide. 

Sources for CC Licensed Decorative Images

Read their terms of use for more information about how icons and photos can be used. 

Filtering instructions:

  1. Enter search terms.
  2. On the results page, locate the drop down menu next to the Any License option.
  3. Change the drop down to All Creative Commons. The feature attempts to filter the results to show only CC licensed images. (Do not rely solely on the filter.) 
  4. Click on a given photo to check for sure that it is CC licensed and to determine which license it uses and thus what options for reuse are available. 

Sources for Licensed, Free-to-Use Images

These images are NOT in the public domain nor Creative Commons licensed. These sites provide images that are free to use under their own licensing agreements.

Read the Morguefile license to learn how images can be used, and read the full license for more information. 

Read the Pixabay license to learn the full set of terms for using Pixabay images. 

Read the Unsplash terms to learn how their images can be used.